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Jamal CollierESPN
MIAMI — DeMar DeRozan‘s daughter, Diar, was escorted out of Toronto’s Scotiabank Arena by team security Wednesday night following the Chicago Bulls‘ 109-105 victory over the Toronto Raptors after the NBA notified the team of online threats directed at the nine-year old, Beth Esler of Bulls PR confirmed to ESPN.
Diar DeRozan went viral during the Bulls’ first play-in game for her loud screams that reverberated through the arena and on the broadcast each time the Raptors went to the free throw line.
Toronto went 18-of-36 (50%) from the free throw line in that game, paving the way for Chicago’s 19-point comeback victory.
“It’s crazy. It’s the world we live in,” DeRozan said after Friday night’s 102-91 play-in loss at Miami. “No matter how good something could be, you still got miserable people that just don’t have a life, honestly. It’s sad. All I care about is my daughter enjoying her moment.”
Diar DeRozan was not in attendance Friday night in Miami. DeMar DeRozan was adamant even in the aftermath of Wednesday’s game that his daughter would not miss another day of school and revealed Friday morning that she was playing in her own basketball game that night.
“She’s still a child, you know what I mean,” DeRozan said after shoot around Friday morning. “I don’t let her get caught up in the outside fix of it. She just came there for one reason and one reason only and that was to support her dad. She had the most fun with it. For me, I wanted to protect that moment for her.
“I never would have thought it would go to that extreme that it did. But, you know, it did. Maybe later down the line when she gets older, she will look back at it and realize what really happened.”